CatholicChinatag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-922912084123051632011-04-01T21:30:03-04:00This weblog is dedicated to discussing the struggle of the Roman Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China.TypePadNew bishop ordained with Holy See, Chinese government concordtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d834519d8969e20147e3ad3b35970b2011-04-01T21:30:03-04:002011-04-01T21:36:25-04:00Breaking what had been developing as a dangerous trend towards full rupture, a new bishop was ordained in the Jiangmen diocese, located in China's Guangdong province. The ordination of Bishop Paul Liang Jiansen took place March 30 at Jiangmen's Cathedral of Immaculate Heart of Mary with all concelebrating bishops and...Neil W. McCabe

Breaking what had been developing as a dangerous trend towards full rupture, a new bishop was ordained in the Jiangmen diocese, located in China's Guangdong province.

The ordination of Bishop Paul Liang Jiansen took place March 30 at Jiangmen's Cathedral of Immaculate Heart of Mary with all concelebrating bishops and priests sanctioned by the Vatican.

The Catholic Church in Mainland China is the only recognized religion that does not accept oversight by the government. Because of this, the government established a Patriotic Catholic Church, which now operates Catholic facilities and institutions. Rather than accept this usurption of the Church's perogatives and authority, many bishops and other clergy went underground to continue the Church's mission.

Although there had been movement towards the conflation of the Patriotic Church with an clandestino Church brought out into the open. Each player, the Vatican, the Chinese government, the underground Church and the Patriotic Church, has an ongoing struggle between forces for and opposed to unity.

In November, Joseph Guo Jincai was ordained bishop of Chengde without the sanction of the Holy See. The act was referred to by Pope Benedict XVI in his Christmas message and was reponded to by the official Chinese media.

The fear among supporters of unity was that the atmosphere had become so poisoned that recent progress was lost. Although not the final act in this drama, this most recent ordination signals that progress is still possible.

'Clandestino' bishop dies Ash Wednesdaytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d834519d8969e2014e86c48296970d2011-03-16T22:32:24-04:002011-04-01T21:37:01-04:00Zenit.org reports the passing in China of clandestino Bishop Bishop Andrew Hao Jinli, 95, on Ash Wednesday. The bishop suffered many years of forced labor and prison, and expired shortly after receiving the Last Rites. Read the article here.Neil W. McCabe

Zenit.org reports the passing in China of clandestino Bishop Bishop Andrew Hao Jinli, 95, on Ash Wednesday. The bishop suffered many years of forced labor and prison, and expired shortly after receiving the Last Rites.

Benedictines share their experiences in China, part onetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d834519d8969e2014e5fad3e80970c2011-03-06T10:19:52-05:002011-03-06T10:21:53-05:00This is the first of three videos from the VeritasEstLibertas website that bring us a powerful oral history of the the struggles of the Church in China as experienced by these three Benedictines: "Benedictine Father Werner Papeians de Morchoven (right), Benedictine Father Eleutherius Winance (center) and Benedictine Brother Peter (Bang-Jiu...Neil W. McCabe

This is the first of three videos from the VeritasEstLibertas website that bring us a powerful oral history of the the struggles of the Church in China as experienced by these three Benedictines:

"Benedictine Father Werner Papeians de Morchoven (right), Benedictine Father Eleutherius Winance (center) and Benedictine Brother Peter (Bang-Jiu Zhou) (left) lived in a Benedictine monastery in Szechwan, China, during the Communist takeover. Father Winance was arrested and expelled from China, Father Papeians de Morchoven was forced out of China and Brother Peter was arrested and served 25 years in a Communist prison, where he was tortured for many of those years."

tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d834519d8969e20147e2db954b970b2011-02-26T23:30:54-05:002011-02-26T23:33:54-05:00Spero News reports on the passing of Mgr. Hu Daguo, 89, the underground bishop of Shiqian, China. The late prelate endured a priestly life of jail and re-education without wavering in his loyalty to the universal Church. Excerpt: "An underground Catholic from Shiqian, told AsiaNews that the bishop was a...Neil W. McCabe

The late prelate endured a priestly life of jail and re-education without wavering in his loyalty to the universal Church.

Excerpt: "An underground Catholic from Shiqian, told AsiaNews that the bishop was a 'good shepherd' and praised his faith and his loyalty to the Catholic Church. According to the Catholic, some priests of the diocese of Shiquian were deeply affected by the battle that Msgr. Hu led to bear witness to Christ throughout his life."

Taiwanese cardinal presses Vatican, China talkstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d834519d8969e2014e8631d0b5970d2011-02-20T07:45:33-05:002011-02-20T07:47:34-05:00There is great excitment building about the upcoming trip to China by Paul Cardinal Shan Kuo-hsi, S.J. The cardinal, who was born Henan Province in 1923 and will visit his home and family there, as well as make formal and informal visits to Chinese officials and businesses. The Jesuit cardinal...Neil W. McCabe

There is great excitment building about the upcoming trip to China by Paul Cardinal Shan Kuo-hsi, S.J. The cardinal, who was born Henan Province in 1923 and will visit his home and family there, as well as make formal and informal visits to Chinese officials and businesses.

The Jesuit cardinal is the bishop emeritus of Kaohsiung Diocese and retired in 2006.

Taiwan and the Holy See have full diplomatic relations, and the Chinese government has repeatedly reminded the Vatican of this slight. Althought it functions are a sovereign state, Mainland China regards Taiwan as a rogue province.

For its part, the Vatican has expressed a willingness to realign its diplomatic relationship, but that adjustment must be in the context of more general talks that secure the Catholic Church in China full religious freedom.

Pope ordains Chinese bishop in Rome tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d834519d8969e20148c87d818a970c2011-02-09T13:27:33-05:002011-02-09T13:28:10-05:00Both the Holy See and the Chinese government say there must be more bishops. The Chinese say they ordain new bishops on their own because they cannot wait for Vatican to finish their vetting. The Vatican says it must go alone because it alone is the guardian of the succession...Neil W. McCabe

Both the Holy See and the Chinese government say there must be more bishops. The Chinese say they ordain new bishops on their own because they cannot wait for Vatican to finish their vetting. The Vatican says it must go alone because it alone is the guardian of the succession from the Apostles.

Pope Benedict XVI renewed his challenge to China to respect religious freedom, as he presided on February 5 at the ordination of five new bishops.

All five of the new bishops consecrated by the Pontiff are Vatican officials. But Bishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, the Hong Kong native who now serves as secretary of the Congregation for Evangelization, drew the most widespread attention.

By personally ordaining a Chinese bishop, Pope Benedict was calling attention to the continuing despite between the Holy See and the Beijing regime, which claims the right to name its own Catholic bishops. During the February 5 ceremony, the Pope reiterated the argument that the Vatican has consistently put forward: that only the Holy See has the authority to name new bishops.

The Church in China: A special reporttag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d834519d8969e20148c8668c83970c2011-01-22T19:03:00-05:002011-02-06T23:02:37-05:00by Neil W. McCabe [This article was first published Jan. 21, 2011 in The Pilot, Boston's Catholic newspaper.] Observers of the Catholic Church in China fear a further rupture in the relationship between the Holy See and the leadership of the Peoples Republic of China if the government-controlled Patriotic Catholic...Neil W. McCabe

by Neil W. McCabe

[This article was first published Jan. 21, 2011 in The Pilot, Boston's Catholic newspaper.]

Observers of the Catholic Church in China fear a further rupture in the relationship between the Holy See and the leadership of the Peoples Republic of China if the government-controlled Patriotic Catholic Church ordains a new bishop of the Jilin Diocese without Rome's approval.

The situation is fraught with anxiety for both Catholic missionaries in China and for Chinese Catholics in both the recognized Church and the underground Church because it would harm the movement towards uniting the two Chinese institutions and the ultimate goal of full communion between all Chinese Catholics and the universal Church.

The northeast Chinese see has been vacant since the July 2009 death of Bishop Damas Zhang Hanmin, a member of the Patriotic Catholic Church whose ordination as a bishop was legitimized by the Vatican.

In his Christmas Day "Urbi et Orbi," message, "to the City and the World," Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholics in China to be resilient in the face of the restrictions on their religious freedom placed on them by the Chinese government. In the wake of the November decision by the Chinese to ordain a new bishop of Chengde without Vatican approval, the Pope's exhortation was seen as a return volley.

The Chinese response to the pope's Christmas message came through an editorial in the "Global Times," an official English-language newspaper in China for the international community. The editorial reminded Rome of its pique over the Vatican State's status as the only European nation with full diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and not with the Peoples Republic of China.

The main thrust of the editorial was the idea that although there are many religious Chinese of many faith traditions, China would not be free if those citizens followed orders from foreign power centers. The editorial went on to say that the Vatican ideal of religious identity was unrealistic and harmful. "Religious belief is a personal freedom. However, every person also has an identity bound by law, their citizenship."

"What the Vatican demands from China is power, it is not about the true core of Catholic belief," the editorial said. "Sooner or later, Vatican will have to adjust its China policy."

In his May 27, 2007 message to the Church in China, Pope Benedict XVI updated and clarified the relationship between the Holy See and the leadership in China with the intention of beginning a dialogue towards normalization.

One European scholar affiliated with Hong Kong University said in the interim between the 2007 letter and the unauthorized ordination, Rome and Beijing worked out a protocol by which the Patriotic Church would nominate candidates for ordination to bishop that the Vatican vets and then either approved or disapproved.

"This rapprochement between the Vatican and China has taken a big step backwards. It is a sad, sad event," said the scholar, who has studied the Church in China for more than 30 years and who requested that his name not be used to protect his ability to move in and out of China for his research.

"What happened recently in Chengde was the Chinese government showing the Vatican that despite the cooperation, it will not be dictated to," he said. At that ordination, many bishops and other clergy were transported to the ceremony by the government with a heavy sense of official pressure.

The European professor said despite the tensions, the Church remains resilient.

"The goal of the Communists in 1950 was to create a schism and to have a completely separate church. In the light of how things are, that plan is a complete failure," he said.

Of 45 bishops in China ordained without Rome's permission almost all have reached out to Rome for validation, he said. Despite all of the efforts of the Chinese, the Church in China still seeks its place in communion with the Universal Church.

The event in November came as the Chinese were complaining the Vatican is taking too long and with the country's number of empty bishoprics, the process needs to be faster, he said.

The name of the bishop had been submitted to Rome, but the Chinese simply grew impatient, he said. "I am a Catholic myself, so you understand that I am reluctant to criticize the Church, but in this case I believe the Church may have taken too long."

Given the delay, the Chinese took the opportunity to assert their own rights in the process, he said. In this way, the situation is similar to the tensions between the French kings and the popes, with the kings insisting on their right to control who became prelates in their realm.

"The difference is that in the case of France, the popes always approved the king's choice, and in China the popes do not always approve," he said.

This French practice continued into the 19th Century and can be seen working in the career of Boston's first bishop Jean Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus. Cheverus, upon his return to France, was named the Archbishop of Bordeaux and later elevated to cardinal at the insistence French King Louis Philippe. In fact, it was the monarch himself who invested Cheverus with his scarlet robes and placed the cardinal's hat upon his head at a Paris Mass observed by the papal nuncio.

Another scholar, G. Wright Doyle, the director of the Global China Center, based in Charlottesville, Va., said, "The Patriotic Church is fully out in the open with total freedom to do whatever you are allowed to do in China."

The clergy of the Patriotic Church would not feel oppressed, he said. "They have all been cleared in the government's vetting."

Doyle said the recognized Church is allowed to gather and worship, it is absolutely orthodox in its theology, practices and respect for tradition. "In this way, the situation is similar to the Church of England immediately after it broke from Rome."

The critical issue is whether or not one believes the role of the loyalty to the papacy is important, he said.

Among many in the underground Church there are hurt feelings and resentments, since they are the ones who were beaten, imprisoned, he said.

Now they are being asked to accept that those who did not sacrifice in the name of loyalty to the papacy are treated as equals by the pope, he said.

"The relationship between the underground Church and the Patriotic Church, like most things in China is complicated," Doyle said. "Among the clergy, they often interact. As for the government, they certainly know where they are and who they are, but in the last year or two, they seemed to have loosened up their controls."

The director of the U.S. Chinese Catholic Bureau, Father Michel Marcil, S.J., said of the five legally recognized religions in the People's Republic of China: Islam, Buddhism, Daoism, protestant Christianity and Roman Catholicism, the Catholic Church is the only one to resist the full regimen of government regulation.

"This is because the Church as the successor to the Apostles cannot accept control by government," said Father Marcil, a native of Quebec, who taught at the Shanghai Regional Seminary during the 1989 to 1990 academic year. The bureau is located on the campus of Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., and is officially affiliated with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

After the Communist Revolution in 1949, the Church enjoyed relative freedom under the new government until the country's leader Chairman Mao-Zedong launched 'The Great Leap Forward," a campaign of internal communist revival.

"For eight years, no one went underground because there were few restrictions," the priest said. "Then, one night, a number of bishops, priests, nuns and other religious were arrested, and others decided to go underground." Many spent 15 to 20 years living their faith clandestinely.

Clerics absent from the life of the Church, either by imprisonment or self-withdrawal, were replaced by compliant priests and bishops. These events created the current bifurcation in the Church in China with an underground Church and an organization calling itself the Patriotic Catholic Church acting as the de jure Church, he said.

After the tumult of the Great Leap Forward, in 1961 Mao was secretly deposed by the party leadership, although he remained the titular head of party and state. In 1967, Mao regained full power leading a violent student revolt against the leadership dawning the period called the "Cultural Revolution."

Father Marcil said, during the Cultural Revolution, which did not end until Mao's passing in 1976, the Church was constantly harassed and many churches were shuttered.

Like other missionary countries, the vast majority of clergy in China were members of religious orders, he said. Consistent with its concern over outside influences, the Chinese government does not allow religious orders, which operate with pontifical charters, to function as communities inside its borders, in large part because Vatican City is a sovereign state.

The solution is to organize religious orders under the authority of the local bishop, he said.

"As a member of the Jesuits, I am free to come and go as I please as an individual, but if I were to work together with other Jesuits, then it would become a problem," he said.

Sister Janet Carroll, M.M., who preceded Father Marcil at the Chinese Catholic Bureau and is now the liaison to Catholic Chinese programs for the Maryknolls, said the vast majority of bishops ordained through the orchestration of the Chinese government are sincere clerics who are stepping up so that the bishops' sees are not filled by charlatans or political careerists.

The bishop created in November, Joseph Guo Jincai, is a good man, who was put into a very difficult position, she said. "These are people we know and respect. They are fine men, but they are now compromised."

The sister said that the bishop's ordination is valid because he was ordained by a valid bishop, but the chief objection for the Vatican is that he is now in-charge of a diocese without permission.

"What we need is prayer," said Sister Janet. "Soon after the ordination in November, I received an email from a young priest in China who told me: 'They have turned our Advent into Lent.'"

Sister Seng Xia Han, a Chinese nun from Liaoning Province studying at Boston College, said, in her experience, the members of the underground Church and the registered Church interact easily.

The nun, who converted to Catholicism in 1988, shortly after her graduation from high school, said it is common to have members of the two Churches worshiping at the same church, but at different Masses times.

Before she began her studies in September 2009, Sister Han said she became friends with an underground priest who heard her confessions and acted as a mentor to her, even though she is a member of diocesan order within the Patriotic Church.

The spiritual director of the Boston Chinese Catholic Community, Father Peter Shen said the Church in China in many ways is stronger now than ever before.

"In the past, there may have been more priests and bishops, but they were mostly foreign missionaries. Today, the Church in China has more bishops and priests who are native Chinese," he said.

"In China the percentage of Catholics who regularly attend Mass is something like 90 to 95 percent, which is much more than here in America," he said.

A native of China's Henan Province, Father Shen said there have been many positive changes in his lifetime.

"I was born in 1969 during the Cultural Revolution when the Church was very oppressed. Many churches were closed and many priests and bishops were sent to prison," he said. "In 1979, the Chinese government changed its policy on religious, and the churches were reopened and the priests and bishops were released."

Father Shen said the difficulty between the Vatican and the Chinese leadership needs to be resolved, but it does not affect the daily life of regular Chinese Catholics. But, there is a strong need for the Church in China to deepen its relationship with the universal Church.

"On the ground-level Catholics ask different questions," he said. "They want to know: 'Will I be free to attend Mass?' 'Will I be able to meet with a priest?' 'Will I have access to reconciliation and the other sacraments?'" In most cases, the answer to these questions is yes. "The churches are open every day."

When the priest visited China last fall, he said he was impressed by the vibrancy by religious faith in action there by Catholics.

"I saw choir practices, churches full of worshipers and adorations of the Eucharist," he said.

"China is a great place for evangelization because although there is more prosperity, there are so many people searching for the meaning of life," he said.

"Humans are physical animals, but we are also spiritual animals," Father Shen said. "They are like two wings of the same bird and you cannot fly with one wing."

There are now more rich people in China, but without God, they are lost, he said. "For the poor, life without God is full of despair."

Christmas in Jilin Citytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d834519d8969e20148c8673905970c2011-01-09T20:36:00-05:002011-02-06T21:35:31-05:00Parishoners of Jilin City's Sacred Heart of Jesus Church pass a nativity scene in the churchyard. There are roughly 5,000 Catholics who worship at Sacred Heart, the only church in the Manchurian city of four million. [Photo by Neil W. McCabe] by Neil W. McCabe [This article was originally published...Neil W. McCabe

Parishoners of Jilin City's Sacred Heart of Jesus Church pass a nativity scene in the churchyard. There are roughly 5,000 Catholics who worship at Sacred Heart, the only church in the Manchurian city of four million. [Photo by Neil W. McCabe]

by Neil W. McCabe

[This article was originally published Jan. 7, 2011 in The Pilot, Boston's Catholic newspaper.]

Despite bracing cold, Chinese worshipers in Jilin City, a city in the region once known as Manchuria, marked the birth of our Savior at Masses celebrated at Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ Church, a majesty structure with its doors facing the mighty Songhua River.

Sacred Heart is the only Catholic church in the city of four million and its parish community has grown in recent years to more than 5,000 believers, said Father Guo Sheng “Joseph” Wang, a curate at the parish and the director of its social services ministry.

Wang said for Christmas there were three Masses: Christmas Eve, Midnight Mass and Christmas Day, which were concelebrated with Wang by the other two priests, Father Liu Wen Hui, the pastor, Father Hou Jun Jie, an associate pastor with primary responsibility for the parish newspaper.

Because of harsh cold temperatures that reached highs of 10 degrees in the day and the lows of 15 degrees below zero at night, Wang said the Masses could not be held in the unheated 1926-built church because of concerns for elderly worshipers. Instead, the Masses were held in the parish hall chapel.

At the Christmas Day Mass, the chapel was packed with more than 500 congregants, who crowded the pews, aisles and open areas in the back. There were also more than a two dozen parishioners lined up at the confessional.

When it was built by French missionaries, Sacred Heart was the local cathedral because Jilin was then a provincial capital. In the 1994, the diocesan seat was moved to Changchun, the current capital of Jilin Province. During the Cultural Revolution, 1966 to 1976, the church was closed and damaged. In 1980, it was allowed to reopen. Beginning in the 1990s, the government has funded repairs to both the church building and the other buildings on the small campus.

The church and its surrounding fenced-in campus comprise a rectory, a parish hall and a performance stage along with ancillary storage sheds. Across the street behind the church, there is a health clinic for seniors run by the sisters.

During his August 2010 visit to the China, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il took a short tour of the church, where he said he father once sought sanctuary from the Japanese authorities there during the Second World War. It is also a short walk from the Yumen Middle School, the elite Marxist school he father attended.

Father Joseph Wang said he has been a priest in Jilin Province since 1997. He grew up in Jilin City and was raised in a Catholic family. As a young man he was pressured by his father and a friend of his father to study for the priesthood, but he always resisted. Finally, he attended a religious festival and was overcome with the feeling that in fact it was his calling to be a priest.

Although he continued to resist it, he prayed for six months until accepting his vocation and he said he was admitted to Jilin Seminary in a class of 13 seminarians.

Since his ordination, Father Wang said he has had four assignments. For his first three years, he taught at the seminary before his three stints at country parishes. He began his tenure at Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ Church Jan. 28, 2008.

At the parish, Father Wang serves as an associate pastor and the director of the parish’s social services office, he said. He shares duties with three other priests. There are two American Maryknoll priests who teach at the city’s Bei Hua University.

“Our social services ministry will mark its fifth year in operation in February,” he said. He is the second director. “The vision for Tianji Social Services is to promote a warm, loving, peaceful and harmonious community for everybody”

In addition for raising the profile of the city’s Catholic population, the priest said the program provides student scholarships, youth activities and a home visit ministry for the elderly, poor families and those struggling with HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

Father Wang said the Church in Jilin Province and in the city is growing, but not quickly. In the province itself, there are more than 40 individual houses of worship for roughly 80,000 Catholics. In Jilin, Sacred Heart is the only church and there are 5,000 members of its community. In addition to the three priests, there are 80 sisters, who belong to the Holy Family Sisters convent, which is a diocesan order without foreign affiliations.

One of the 5,000 parishioners is 70-year-old Maria Qiao, who said she was baptized into the Church five years ago. “I had a friend who was a Catholic and she told me to come to the church with her and see how having a relationship with God could he me.”

Qiao said, “I have had many difficulties in my life and my faith has helped me deal with those things. I have learned that when one door closes, another one opens.”

A lifelong resident of Jilin, Qiao said the Communist Party in her city respects the practice of religion.

The sisters are wonderful,” Qiao said. “They teach us about the Bible and how to pray.”

Some of the sisters work with Father Wang at the social services ministry, but most have duties spread throughout the city, including a health clinic across the street from the back of the church that focuses on the needs of the elderly, he said.

Like other parts of the country, the Diocese of Jilin struggles with the gulf between the underground Church and the recognized and functioning Church, he said.

Wang said although the last ordinary Bishop Zhang Hamin died in 2009 and the Jilin bishopric is still vacant, he did not expect it to become part of any controversy between the recognized and unrecognized Church. “There are many good candidates; I just hope it is not me. I am too young to be a bishop and I have too much work to do here.”

In his own family, the priest said he has a 37-year-old cousin who is a member of the underground, who studied at an underground seminary and was ordained by an underground bishop.

Although the separation exists, Father Wang said recognized and underground priests know each other and often interact.

He said he believes the underground priests and bishops should come out and join the recognized Church because the recognized Church operates as free as any other institution in China. “They are very proud and they should realize that it is now OK to join us.”

One of his most precious memories as a priest, are the few Masses he celebrated with his cousin before his cousin left China for Italy, where he now teaches Chinese, he said. “He was told by his superior not to celebrate Mass with me, but he did anyway. It was a very special experience each of the three or four times we did it before he left, but obviously the first time was especially emotionally for both of us.”

The parish has made ministries, but it does not have a school, he said. “Having a religious school in China is complicated.”